Category: Apple

The other day @nibaq posted a 360 panorama of a graveyard in Kuwait and I found out he did it with an iPhone app called 360 Panorama. So I downloaded it and tried it out and found it incredibly easy to use. I just did a 360 interactive panorama of Fahad al Salem street which you can see by clicking [Here]

I think I will be doing various panoramas of places and events around Kuwait when I can and post them here since its so easy to do. The image above is NOT the 360 panorama, it’s just the flattened out panorama.

Awhile back my MacBook was starting to feel sluggish and I was really tempted to buy a newer model but since I was just using the laptop to get online from the couch or for when I travel, I didn’t think it was worth buying a new laptop. Instead, I decided to upgrade my MacBook from a 2.5inch 5400rpm 250GB hard drive to a 64GB SSD.

What is SSD? SSD stands for solid-state drive and to keep it simple its just a hard drive with no moving parts and is around 5 times faster than regular notebook hard drives. I ordered the ADATA 64GB drive from Amazon since based on my research I found it had the best bang for the buck. I also looked at two other brands before deciding on ADATA which were OCZ Technology and Crucial Technology, both of which have extremely fast performance drives but at a slightly more expensive cost.

I could easily review the drive in just 7 words: “It makes all other computers feel slow”. It cut down the boot time of my MacBook to less than half and it also sped up the launch time of all the applications. For example it now takes 1 second to launch Photoshop while other applications like Safari and Microsoft Word launch practically instantly. No waiting or spinning colored wheel just click and they’re open. The SSD drive not only brought new life to my aging MacBook but for day to day use it made it feel a lot faster than all my other computers including my already very fast iMac and Mac Pro.

I got the 64GB SSD and not something larger because the prices became tooooo expensive with the larger drives. For example a 256GB SSD would cost you around $500 which is nearly half the price of a brand new MacBook! The 64GB drive on the other hand cost me around KD35 with shipping to Kuwait and after installing the OS and ALL my software I still had 40GB of free space left. That’s more than I need since I just use my MacBook to surf the web, edit some pictures and for traveling. If you’re planning on storing media like your photo or music library than I highly doubt 64GB would be enough.

I would definitely recommend everyone pick up an SSD drive if you can, it really makes a HUGE difference. But, if you need a large drive and are not in a rush, the longer you wait the cheaper the prices will get. Here is the Amazon link to the hard drive I got [Link]

EA is selling a large chunk of its games for a dollar a piece for a limited time. I play a ton of games on my iPhone and iPad so I think this is a pretty good deal if it wasn’t for the fact I already own most of them. Here are the games on sale:

iPhone/iPod touch games
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Mirror’s Edge
Tetris
SimCity Deluxe
Pictureka!
The Simpsons Arcade
Need For Speed Hot Pursuit
Need For Speed Undercover
Need For Speed Shift
The Sims 3
The Sims 3 World Adventures
The Sims 3 Ambitions
Monopoly
Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition
Scrabble
Risk: The Official Game
The Game of Life Classic Edition
FIFA 11
FIFA 10
NBA Elite 11
NCAA Football
Madden NFL 11

iPad games:
Reckless Racing HD
Pictureka! for iPad
Snood for iPad
Yahtzee HD
Clue: Secrets & Spies

Note: Make sure you’re logged in to the US store
Note2: If you don’t have a US account and want to create one click [Here]

Sheeel.com have a deal right now on the latest iPod Shuffles, they’re selling them for just KD10 which is cheaper than the retail price in the US! [Link]

Update: Looks like the link is dead and so is the offer

This has to be the strangest local app so far and I doubt the creator got permission from Funoon. For those of you don’t know what “درب الزلق” is, here is a [Video]. On the other hand if you want the app click [Here]

Not sure how many people know this but you can customize the main icons on the bottom of the Kuwait Blogs app. In the latest version I have my blog, Fahad’s blog, Buz Fairy and Me Blogging but you can set up any of your favorite blogs instead. All you need to do is click on “More” and then click on “Edit” on the top right. Now you can just drag and drop your favorite blogs down to the bottom bar.

There is a minor bug currently where you can’t read the names of the 4 most bottom blogs in the edit page. I couldn’t figure out how to fix that honestly. From now on for every update I will have 3 random blogs other than mine set up by default at the bottom. They will most probably be blogs which I think are good but aren’t getting the attention they should be getting.

If you haven’t downloaded the Kuwait Blogs app already click [Here]

I’ve updated the Kuwait Blogs app now to version 2.0. Basically I’ve fixed a ton of bugs and also updated the bloggers list by removing inactive blogs and adding new ones. The total amount of blogs in the App has increased and is now 21. Here is the list of blogs:

2:48AM
2:48PM
360 Dewan
4th Ring Road
Ansam
Banana Q8
Black Market
Buz Fairy
Buzberry
Confashions
Fereej
Frankom
High Street Q8
His & Hers
iLSul6ana
Me Blogging
P0ach
Tidbit Du Jour
Trying to be Fahad
Up Till One
zDistrict

Another major update is the graphics. All the icons were redone in high resolution so they will look much better on the iPhone 4’s. Previously they were looking a bit blurry but now they’re back to looking extremely sharp. You can download the update from the App Store or if you haven’t downloaded and installed the App before then you can find it in the store by searching for Kuwait Blogs or by clicking [Here]

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs State of Kuwait (MOFA) released an iPhone app today on the occasion of Eid Al-Fitr. I’m impressed that they actually released an iPhone app but I would rather have a Ministry of Interior app which would allow me to save my two cars in it and have it automatically check daily if any of my cars received speeding tickets and then warn me with a pop up notification and a beep. Ok maybe that’s asking too much but still a nice little app that would allow me to check my traffic violations conveniently would be pretty cool. Here is the link to the app [Link]

Here are the links to my two apps:
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Kuwait Blogs

Update: Just noticed something funny in the app. When you click on the Embassy Search link you get a list of countries… but they’re not in alphabetical order. I actually can’t think of an order they’re listed in. I thought they were listed by Kuwait’s favorite countries but if that was the case USA and UK would be higher. By popularity? Don’t think so since Egypt would be much higher on the list. Distance? Nope. Random? Don’t think so since the first few countries are GCC countries. Can anyone figure it out? Here is the way they’re listed:

UAE
Saudi Arabia
Bahrain
Qatar
Oman
Lebanon
Syria
Jordan
UK
Thailand
Kuwait
USA
Australia
Canada
Germany
Spain
Egypt

If you have an iPhone and an iPad you will probably understand how annoying it is that you can’t share your phones internet connection over wifi to you iPad. Well now it’s super easy.

Visit www.jailbreakme.com from your iPhone browser and follow the instructions to jailbreak your phone and install Cydia. Shoul take around 2 minutes.

When done launch Cydia and search for the app called MyWi. It costs $20 but you can try it out for free for 10 days. Using MyWi you will be able to share your phone’s internet connection over wifi which you could connect the iPad to. Very easy.

I have had the iPhone for a week now and so far like the majority of iPhone 4 users, I haven’t had any reception problems (note: I am using an Apple Bumper). No dropped calls or anything. As I’ve previously mentioned the reception is actually better than my previous iPhone 3GS. With the iPhone 3GS the 3G wouldn’t work in my office just EDGE while with the iPhone 4 I now have 3G in the office. Another example is when I park my car underground when I go to my gym, before I wouldn’t be able to use the phone there because I would get a no network error, now I get 1 or 2 lines of signals and can make calls.

Other than the much improved reception and antenna, another improved feature is the camera. The iPhone 4 camera is just amazing, I’m actually finding myself shooting a lot more pictures with my phone now and if you check my twitter page you’d see that. The camera is probably the best new feature followed by the screen and improved reception.

Now not all is perfect. What I am facing is issues with the proximity sensor. That’s actually the problem most iPhone 4 users are complaining about. The problem is the sensor the tells the phone that its next to the ear and should shut off the screen doesn’t work all the time. So I would be talking to someone on the phone and then suddenly I put the person on speaker phone or hang up by accidentally pressing a button on the screen with my ear. Luckily Apple are aware of the problem and admitted this was an issue that would get fixed with the next software update.

Other than that it’s all good, The screen is amazing, battery life is great and the phone is just really fast and responsive. I highly recommend it.

Apple have started refunding customers for the bumper purchase, I just got the following email:

Dear Mark,

Apple recently announced that iPhone 4 customers who purchased an iPhone 4 Bumper are eligible for a full refund.

As of today, we have automatically processed your refund. You have also been refunded for any Shipping or VAT charges which may have been applied to your order.

If you paid via credit card, please allow 3-5 business days for the refund to reach your account.

Thank you for choosing Apple.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Support

Pretty sweet.

Getting an iPhone 4 is pretty simple but you need patience since the iPhone 4 is currently in short supply and can take up to 3 weeks to be delivered. To order an iPhone 4 you also need the following:

1) Local credit card
2) Aramex Shop&Ship account (not sure if it works with others like DHL)

Then what you need to do is go to the UK online Apple Store which is located at the following link address:
https://store.apple.com/uk

Once there click on the iPhones and then select the iPhone you want and check out. If you never ordered from Apple before you will have to create an account. Put your US Aramex mailbox as your billing address as your Kuwait base credit card address and then put your Aramex UK mailbox address as your shipping address. The UK iPhones are officially unlocked.

I placed my order on June 25th for a black 16GB iPhone 4 with a black Apple iPhone 4 Bumper. I paid the following:

iPHONE 4 BLACK 16GB 424.68 GBP
IPHONE 4 BUMPERS BLACK 21.28 GBP
——–
VAT 17.5% 78.04 GBP
——–
Final Amount (VAT included) 524.00 GBP

I paid with my NBK credit card and according to my bank statement the amount I paid in Kuwaiti Dinars was 236.570.

My iPhone 4 shipped on July 9th and arrived to my Aramex mailbox on July 15th. It showed up in my Aramex mailbox the same day and then shipped from the UK on July 16th. I received the iPhone today July 21st after being held in customs for 3 days.

The Aramex shipping charges were KD5.750 and that included the customs clearance fee. This was only for my iPhone 4, my iPhone Bumper is still held in customs. On a side note when the iPhone arrived it was unopened. Not just the actual iPhone box but the larger box the iPhone came inside had not been opened neither by Aramex nor customs.

I also passed by Zain and picked up a micro-sim card which you need for the iPhone 4. The sim card cost me KD5.

If you have any questions ask it below. Regarding antenna and reception problems, I believe this was blown out of proportion by the media and as Steve Jobs said it’s not a problem and 0.5% of the 3 million iPhone users have had reception issues. Many popular phones have similar reception issues which you will never have to experience if using the phone normally. If you have any questions regarding antenna problems click [Here]

Update: Some examples of phones that have a similar antenna issues
Samsung Galaxy S
Palm Pre
Google Nexus One
Google Droid
Nokia E71
Blackberry Bold

Saw this on iLSuL6ana’s blog and found it hilarious. [YouTube]

Update: He’s released part 2! [YouTube]

A lot of phones have reception problems, you just never notice them. I had the E71 for a few months and never noticed this reception issue or had a reception issue. I am assuming once I have my iPhone 4 I also won’t notice any reception problems. [YouTube]

Update: It takes just 1 finger to mess everything up in the iPhone 4…

I take it back, there IS a big difference. When I first started using the iPhone 4 I didn’t notice much difference in the screen until I put it side by side next to my old iPhone and I loaded up a website. The text on my iPhone 3Gs screen looked blurry and gray compared to the very sharp and black text on the iPhone 4 screen. I was very surprised and just like that my iPhone 3Gs screen started looking out dated.

One downside to this sharp high resolution screen is that it makes icons and apps seem low res. That should go away once everyone starts making their apps iOS4 compatible.

The screen on the iPhone I got doesn’t have the yellow spots that have been talked about in the media recently but even if it did it’s not really a big deal. Both Gizmodo and Endgadet have reported that the yellow spots are just screen adhesive that disappears after a few days.